Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

In many aquaponics systems I have seen the plants growing inside the pvc pipes.Could someone please explain the basics of this to me.I have an IBC system with a growbed,but i thought I could grow even more plants with the space i have if I had some plants growing in the water distrubution pvc pipes..
Thanks,
Mark

You are most probably referring to NFT (nutrient film technology), a small trickle of nutrient AND oxygen rich water runs over the bottom of the pipe and the plants lap it up. The plants sit in little net pots with the same type of media as a grow bed, their roots grow out of the net pots and dangle in the film of water. Do a search on the forum and the Internet for this term before going any further.

You probably should NOT do this in your distribution pipes for two reasons:
1) if there is sufficient flow through your pipes the water will over flow out of the holes you've made for the plant pots.
2) distribution pipes usually go from a dirty water environment (e.g fish tank) to a filter (e.g grow bed). You need to be pumping very clean water through the pipes you use for NFT otherwise the plants' roots will act as a filter, solids will collect in the roots, and you will get root rot. There are heaps of examples of this on the forum.